Brush Creek

Brush Creek is a 10.5-mile stream that rises in eastern Johnson County, Kansas near West 80th Street and Lamar Avenue in Overland Park and flows east through midtown Kansas City, Missouri to join the Blue River at Blue Banks Avenue and Hardesty Avenue.¹² It is the watercourse of the Country Club Plaza, the south lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the flash-flood path of the 1977 Plaza Flood — and the stream Kansas Citians still sometimes call “Flush Creek” for combined-sewer overflows after heavy rain.¹³

Geography

Length	10.5 mi (16.9 km) eastward1
Headwaters	Near 80th & Lamar, Overland Park, KS (~741 ft)1
Mouth	Blue River, KCMO at Blue Banks & Hardesty (~222 ft)12
States	Kansas and Missouri

Brush Creek is a tributary of the Blue River, which itself drains to the Missouri system. In metro conversation “Brush Creek” almost always means the paved and landscaped channel through the Plaza and museum corridor, not the full headwaters-to-mouth reach.

History

Name and Civil War

The stream was named for the brush that once lined its banks.¹ The Battle of Westport (October 1864) — the largest Civil War engagement west of the Mississippi — was fought on ground on either side of the creek.¹

Plaza and museum landscape

J.C. Nichols built the Country Club Plaza on the creek’s banks; the Nelson-Atkins campus lawn runs from the museum steps down to the water.¹ The creek is therefore both a hydrologic feature and a designed civic landscape.

Pendergast-era paving (1930s)

In the 1930s, under Kansas City’s Ten-Year Plan, stretches of Brush Creek were paved in concrete sold as flood control. Contemporary and later accounts link the work to companies associated with political boss Tom Pendergast — a standing piece of Pendergast-era infrastructure scandal.¹³ Flatland’s watershed history notes that the pavement, intended to prevent flooding, instead created conditions that worsened flash response and pollution.⁴ Living New Deal documentation places WPA-era paving work on Brush Creek around 1935.⁵

1977 Plaza Flood

On September 12–13, 1977, extreme rainfall drove Brush Creek over its banks and put five to six feet of water through the Plaza. Published tallies for the disaster include 25 deaths and more than $66 million in damage (period dollars); Turkey Creek on the Kansas side flooded in the same storm system.¹ Full narrative: 1977-plaza-flood.

Combined sewers and “Flush Creek”

Kansas City long operated a combined storm and sanitary sewer system. During heavy rain, sanitary sewage can overflow into storm lines and appear in Brush Creek; signs discourage water contact after storms, and the local nickname “Flush Creek” stuck.¹ In 2010, as part of a settlement with the U.S. EPA, the city began a multi-decade, multi-billion-dollar program to reduce sewer overflows (DOJ release: $2.5 billion over 25 years at announcement).⁶ KCUR’s 2023 reporting continues to document water quality, maintenance, and the tension between flood-control channel and urban amenity.³

Related floods and infrastructure

• 1977-plaza-flood — defining Brush Creek disaster
• 2017-plaza-flood — later Plaza / creek flooding
• kansas-city-flood-control — regional levee and channel system
• 1903-flood / 1951-flood — Kaw–Missouri industrial floods (different basin; same city flood memory)

Sources

See also

• country-club-plaza
• 1977-plaza-flood
• battle-of-westport
• nelson-atkins
• tom-pendergast
• kansas-city-flood-control
• Wiki

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia — “Brush Creek (Blue River tributary).” — asserts: 10.5 mi length; headwaters 80th & Lamar OP; mouth Blue River at Blue Banks & Hardesty; Battle of Westport on either side; Plaza and Nelson-Atkins on banks; 1930s Pendergast-linked paving; 1977 flood 5–6 ft, 25 dead, >$66M damage; “Flush Creek” nickname; 2010 EPA settlement $2.5B / 25 years. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. USGS Geographic Names Information System — “Brush Creek.” — asserts: official feature record and mouth coordinates. ↩ ↩²

3. KCUR — “Brush Creek is stinky, dirty and poorly maintained…” (Aug. 17, 2023) — asserts: 1930s paving under Ten-Year Plan / Pendergast concrete companies; ongoing water-quality and amenity debate. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Flatland KC — “Our Watershed | A History of Brush Creek” (Feb. 8, 2017) — asserts: paving intended for flood control produced conditions conducive to flooding and pollution. ↩

5. Living New Deal — “Brush Creek Flood Control – Kansas City MO.” — asserts: WPA-era paving along Brush Creek as flood control, c. 1935. ↩

6. U.S. Department of Justice — “Kansas City, Missouri, to Spend $2.5 Billion to Eliminate Sewer Overflows” (May 18, 2010) — asserts: consent-decree scale of combined-sewer overflow remedies. ↩